Foreign contraction at the L.A. Times

Even before last week's new round of departures from the Times, the paper's once-signature foreign staff had shrunk. The bureaus in Tokyo, Paris and Rome have been listed as vacant for some time. Now, I'm told, Spain-based international investigations reporter Sebastian Rotella has accepted an offer he couldn't refuse to return to Los Angeles, Jerusalem-based Ashraf Khalil will leave the Times to stay in the Middle East, and Chris Kraul also turned down a return ticket to L.A. and will stay in Bogota, Colombia to freelance. Kraul, you might remember, was one of the Times correspondents injured in a New Year's Eve 2003 car bombing in Baghdad. Despite several operations at the Jules Stein Eye Institute, Kraul lost the sight in his right eye.